CH07 G is for Grisaille
by Miz Em
Summary: Response to the Summertime Alphabet Fic Challenge at Numbersorg. The next in my series of Colby and Hannah stories, developing their relationship a little further, with a small case thrown in.


**Author's Note:**

Lilly is an original character. She belongs to atxmom at numb3rs-org forum. Used with permission.

-----

"Well, you look happy," Megan was amused. Colby had been high as a kite since he found out that he and Don were selected to the London Legat Office. Hannah had decided to go to London for a month. That was the only way he would have been able to join her.

Colby grinned at her, the snarky smirk that surprisingly cheered her this time. It had always annoyed her before. But then, he'd had a difficult time of it since Hannah had been shot. Colby had surprised her with the depth of character he'd shown in staying with Hannah. He'd always had a reputation as a ladies man, but the shock of almost losing Hannah had proved to be a rude awakening. Megan thought that he'd become a better man through it all.

"Things are looking up," he said softly, knowing that Megan would understand.

She smiled, "There you go, thinking about the sex again."

He burst out laughing at that. That had become a running gag between them. "I'm discovering it isn't all about the sex. But it certainly perks things up."

"I'll just bet it does," Megan said dryly.

"You two working hard or hardly working?" David interrupted, looking a little harrassed.

"Hard is not the word to introduce at this point," Megan replied, sending Colby a pointed look.

Colby just smiled and turned to David. "What's going on, David?"

"LAPD just called us about a homicide. The victim was posed, and they're concerned that it'll turn out to be a serial killer."

"It's a little early to bring us in if it doesn't match any other homicide," Megan said thoughtfully, "There has to be something else."

"There is. The victim is Summer Rayne, star of the new soap opera 'Surf City Blues'."

Megan sighed, as they headed out to the crime scene. Contending with the press on this one was going to be a nightmare.

-----

"The victim's been posed," Colby was telling Don as they walked into the starlet's home. "She's completely nude, except for the turban on her head, and painted with some sort of grey substance. It's kind of a strange pose too, lying on her side, but propped up on her left elbow on those cushions there. And she's looking over her right shoulder. Everything's in shades of grey. Megan's looking around, trying to profile the victim."

"Anyone figure out how the perp achieved this pose?" Don wanted to know. "A dead body doesn't exactly have muscle tone to maintain a pose."

Colby shrugged, "They haven't said. I'll see if I can find out."

"The manager says she was being stalked," David told Don as he caught up with both of them.

"How long?" Don asked.

"He says two, maybe three weeks. The stalker was calling her every day, and leaving little gifts like candy or flowers at the door. They reported it to the police. LAPD did what they could, adding patrols around the house, but that didn't stop the gifts at the door," David replied. "They pulled her phone records. There were calls everyday from this cell phone but Garrett Jensen, who owns the phone, claims that he'd lost the cellphone. LAPD's forwarding all of that to us."

Don nodded, and looked expectantly at Megan as she joined them.

She shook her head and sighed, "Well, whatever else she was, I don't think she was a careless person. This had to have been someone she knew."

"Have you figured out the significance of the pose?" Don asked in some frustration. He sighed when everyone shook their head in the negative. "Well, make sure we get pictures. The pose has to mean something."

-----

"Hold that elevator!"

Megan held the elevator and stuck her head out the elevator doors only to see her friend Lilly making a dash for the elevator. Lilly grinned and waved. She was always running for something or other. Megan laughed when Lilly finally got into the elevator, all breathless from the run.

"You ever walk anywhere?" Megan wanted to know, still amused.

Lilly laughed, "I keep trying! But it never works out for me!"

Megan shook her head at her, but seeing Lilly had lightened her mood a little. She'd been affected more than usual by the crime scene.

"So where's the rest of the gang?" Lilly asked. "I haven't seen anyone in several days. Are they in the bullpen? I'm going to harrass them back into training."

"Go for it," Megan was grinning, the things Lilly said were always good for a laugh.

"Megan, who's the woman Granger's with?" Lilly asked curiously. The woman had short dark hair. "She's not very pretty, I can't imagine him hanging around someone like her."

Megan looked at Lilly in surprise.

"What? He's got an eye for the ladies, doesn't he? Oh!" Lilly was startled into silence because just then, the woman smiled up at Colby and her face lit up. She was beautiful when she smiled, the kind of beauty that reflected the woman within. Lilly saw Colby lean close and kiss her gently on those generous lips. She'd never seen that expression on his face before, a tenderness that almost brought tears to her eyes. "That must be Hannah," Lilly said in a small voice.

"Yes, that's Hannah," Megan said gently.

"He really loves her, doesn't he? I'd kill to have someone look at me the way he looks at her."

Megan regarded Lilly a little more closely. Lilly squirmed a little under that gaze, wondering what conclusions Megan was making about her. She knew her remarks had been a little unkind, and wondered where they'd come from. Granger was just a friend, he'd never made any moves on her or led her to believe otherwise. Still, she'd felt a twinge of jealousy.

"Come meet her." Megan pulled a reluctant Lilly into the bullpen.

Colby looked up and smiled, "Hey Lilly! Good to see you! Hannah, this is Lilly."

There was a short awkward silence as Hannah glanced at Lilly, her expression cool and distant. "Hello, Lilly."

Colby touched Hannah gently, caressing her cheek with his thumb, "Hannah, she's my trainer."

"I know who she is," Hannah said quietly.

"I'm... going to go," Lilly wasn't sure why, but she was uncomfortable under Hannah's gaze. She saw the walking stick that Hannah still used, "Hannah, I'm a licensed physical and massage therapist. If you need anything..." she trailed off awkwardly.

Hannah's expression softened into a smile, "Thank you. I appreciate the offer."

Megan suppressed a grin when she saw Colby release the breath he'd been holding. She wondered if he'd even noticed that he'd sighed in relief.

"Um, tell Don I stopped by, and that he should get back into training. You too, Granger," Lilly said, as lightly as she could. She hadn't liked Robin when they'd met, they were too different. But she would have liked to have met Hannah under different circumstances.

"See you later, Lilly," Colby responded, a little warily. He wasn't sure what Hannah was thinking, but the smile was definitely a good thing.

"It's good to see you, Hannah," Megan gave her a hug. "What are you doing here?"

Hannah smiled warmly at Megan. Megan hadn't been as close a friend as Olivia had been, but she'd missed the profiler. "I had lunch with Robin. I was trying to talk her into going with me to this exhibit at the museum. Maybe I could talk you into it?" She pulled out a flyer and handed it to Megan.

"Not today, but we could certainly talk about it... Whoa! Colby look at this!" Megan handed the flyer to Colby with some excitement.

"What's going on?" Don asked as he came in with David.

"The crime scene is a perfect imitation of one of the pieces of art on the flyer that Hannah just handed Megan," Colby replied. "Hannah, can you tell us anything about it?"

"Well, any art history I studied was a long time ago," Hannah said with some trepidation. "But I'll tell you what I remember."

Don nodded encouragingly.

"It's called the Odalisque, painted by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres using a technique called grisaille."

"Grizz-eye?" Don echoed, puzzled.

"Yes, spelled G-R-I-S-A-I-L-L-E. It's a French term, derived from gris or grey, for painting in monochrome in various shades of grey, particularly used in decoration to represent objects in relief. It was the height of fashion in the 17th century, but the vogue for grisailles declined in the eighteenth century. It's an underpainting technique used to establish form and value for oil painting these days. Portions of Michelangelo's fresco at the Sistine Chapel were done in grisaille. As is the lower part of the decoration of the great staircase by Verrio at Hampton Court. Oh! We can go see that when we're in London!" Hannah exclaimed, thinking of their trip.

Don smiled at her. "Yes, I'm sure we can. In the meantime though, we have a crime to solve."

"We should probably be looking at any artists or aspiring artists," Colby threw in.

"Set decorators," Megan said thoughtfully. "She would know them and possibly feel comfortable enough with them to let them in."

Hannah watched them with interest. It always fascinated her when they switched from 'friend' to 'investigator'.

"Alright, check all the set decorators on that show. And go through her phone book, check everyone out and focus on any artists. David, what about that guy who lost the cellphone? Check and see if he's an artist, or knows any artists. Maybe one of his friends stole the phone. Let's see what we can shake out with this lead." Then Don looked at Hannah and smiled, "It's good to see you again, Hannah. Thanks for the art lesson." He hugged her and was gone, with Megan and David not far behind him.

Hannah laughed as Colby hugged and kissed her almost absently. His mind was already on the investigation. She shook her head and let him get back to work.

-----

"Colby, get this! Brenden Styles, one of the set decorators on 'Surf City Blues' lives in the same apartment building as Garrett Jensen," David was brimming with enthusiasm.

"The guy who owns the cell phone that the stalker called from? Do they know each other?" Colby asked.

"No, but there was some kind of block party that they both attended. Now what kind of guy doesn't disconnect the cell phone when he loses it?"

Colby shrugged, "Probably thought he left it somewhere in the apartment or the car and just couldn't find it."

David shook his head. People did the strangest things.

-----

Styles ran. Colby and David both took off after him, and Colby finally brought Styles down with a tackle. He exchanged a long suffering glance with David. They'd had the conversation before, about perps running, there wasn't anything left to add.

Colby was glad when Styles broke down not long after they started interrogating him.

"I just wanted Summer to notice me," Styles whispered, almost dreamily. "She's so beautiful. I wanted to paint her, but she refused. She laughed at me, said I was just a set decorator, not an artist. I was a huge fan, why did she treat me that way?" He sighed. "But I got to paint her after all." Then he giggled.

David looked at Colby, who shook his head, creeped out by that giggle.

-----

"Everything turn out okay with the case?" Hannah asked idly, while they were watching the baseball game that evening.

Colby looked up from the sketchbook he'd been perusing, wondering again at how happy he felt to hear her asking about his day. "We caught the perp. It was kind of creepy, how obsessed he'd become."

Hannah nodded. Colby grinned, she was only half listening to him, her focus was entirely on the baseball game.

"Hannah, what's with this sketchbook?"

"What sketchbook?" That got Hannah's full attention. "Oh, Colby. I didn't intend for you to see that."

Colby was quiet. The sketchbook was full of sketches of him. "Why?"

She hesitated, then sighed. She slid over and settled on his lap, hugging him tightly to her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it the way it came out. There was a while where I thought you were leaving me. For Lilly. I started filling that sketchbook then, they were to be my memories of you."

"Did you really think I would leave you?" Colby was hurt.

She looked up at him, and kissed him tenderly, "I'm sorry. I guess I was still in denial and I couldn't see why you would want to stay with me. Then you were talking about Lilly and training and I thought you were trying to tell me something."

Colby sighed and pulled her close, "Sorry. I guess I didn't handle that very well either."

Hannah grinned and poked him, "No, you didn't. You alley cat!"

He chuckled, "Didn't I tell you to stop poking me?"

She laughed the sensual throaty laugh that always turned him on, "Didn't I tell you to start?"


End file.
